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Booroolong Frog
Scientific nameRhyaconastes (Litoria) booroolongensis
Conservation status (IUCN)
Endangered
The Booroolong Frog is a small tree frog that is native to Australia. It has disappeared from much of its historic range, but our breed-for-release program is returning them back to their natural habitat.
Sydney
Visitor tips for Taronga Zoo Sydney
You can see Booroolong Frogs in ARC.
ARC Keeper Talk
11:00am
Fun facts about Booroolong Frogs
4yrs
A Booroolong Frog can live up to 4 years.
Where they live
Permanent streams with rocky formations and grassy vegetation
What they eat
They're a generalist feeder that mainly eats arthropods (like insects)
55mm
Female Booroolong Frogs can grow up to 55mm, while males grow to 40mm
Where they're found
Isolated pockets of the tablelands and slopes of NSW and Victoria
Mating
Mating occurs in Spring and early Summer
4yrs
A Booroolong Frog can live up to 4 years.
Where they live
Permanent streams with rocky formations and grassy vegetation
What they eat
They're a generalist feeder that mainly eats arthropods (like insects)
55mm
Female Booroolong Frogs can grow up to 55mm, while males grow to 40mm
Where they're found
Isolated pockets of the tablelands and slopes of NSW and Victoria
Mating
Mating occurs in Spring and early Summer
Did you know?
We bet you didn't know these facts this Australian amphibian.
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Fifty shades of frog
Booroolong frogs colours can vary, and can be anywhere between grey, olive or dark brown.
Small but essential
They play an important role in the ecosystem because they eat river pests and are a food source for other animals.
Hidden hangouts
They will often shelter under rocks near a streams edge.
Conservation status (IUCN)
Endangered
Booroolong Frog Conservation
The Booroolong Frog was once widespread, but has disappeared from most of its range since the mid-1980s due to changes to the landscape and chytrid fungus.
The 2018-2020 drought severely impacted this frog’s habitat in the northern Tablelands of NSW. Taronga collected sixty frogs from the drying ecosystem as founders for an emergency insurance population, breeding them in specialist facilities at Taronga Zoo Sydney. This original population has since boomed in numbers, allowing Taronga to return over 1000 frogs back into the wild since 2023 when conditions improved. Monitoring of the released frogs shows they are growing and appear to be doing well.
Learn more
The 2018-2020 drought severely impacted this frog’s habitat in the northern Tablelands of NSW. Taronga collected sixty frogs from the drying ecosystem as founders for an emergency insurance population, breeding them in specialist facilities at Taronga Zoo Sydney. This original population has since boomed in numbers, allowing Taronga to return over 1000 frogs back into the wild since 2023 when conditions improved. Monitoring of the released frogs shows they are growing and appear to be doing well.
Learn more
Conservation stats
Taronga's Booroolong Frog conservation stats - and counting!
4,000+
Taronga has bred and released over 4,000 Booroolong Frogs into the wild.
*Data updated 2025
*Data updated 2025
Booroolong Frog deep dive
Booroolong Frogs perform an important role in their ecosystems by eating river pests and being a food source for other animals. Tadpoles feed on algae and decaying matter in the bottom of the water. As they rely on healthy river systems, this species can be an important indicator of environmental changes for local scientists.
The disease caused by chytrid fungus has seen frog populations around the world decline, including the Booroolong Frog. It can be spread through water or direct contact with other frogs, attacking the skin and supressing immune response. Globally, around 90 species of amphibians have gone extinct due to this fungal disease. The Booroolong Frog is one of several species impacted by this disease that Taronga is working to save from extinction.
Booroolong Frogs only live in streams that flow year-round so are highly susceptible to droughts that dry riverbeds. Climate change is making drought events more frequent and extreme, further threatening their long-term survival. Changes to land and water use as well as introduced fish and plant species pose further threats.
Frog numbers are in decline and as populations shrink the genetic diversity within those populations is at risk of decreasing too. When genetic diversity in a population is high, the frogs are more resilient to changing pressures, like environmental impacts and disease. To ensure that maximum genetic diversity is passed on, our scientists are cryopreserving sperm from male frogs as part of Taronga’s CryoDiversity Bank Program. These samples are kept at -196 degrees Celsius and can remain frozen for a very long time; decades or even centuries! This frozen sperm will be strategically reintroduced into the population in later generations using assisted breeding methods to maintain the genetic diversity of the population and increase the frog species' chance of survival.
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